The Advisory Relationship
Fiduciary Investment Advisory: A Relationship Built on a Standard of Care.
What it means to be an investment advisory client of Tierney Wealth — direct access to the advisor who knows your situation, transparent fee-based advice, and, when we act in an investment advisory capacity, a fiduciary standard of care that scopes how we work for you.
Fiduciary investment advisory is an advisory relationship in which the adviser is obligated to act in the client’s best interest under a fiduciary standard of care, scoped to investment advisory services. At Tierney Wealth, those services are offered through MML Investors Services, LLC (MMLIS), a registered broker-dealer and investment adviser. This page is about the relationship itself — how you are engaged, how we are paid for advice rather than transactions, how conflicts are handled, and how we coordinate with your CPA and estate attorney. It is the umbrella under which the planning and the portfolio work happen: the question of who is accountable to you, and how. The plan lives in our wealth strategy work, and the portfolio in our asset management work; this is the standard of care that governs both.
What Defines the Advisory Relationship
A Fiduciary Standard of Care
The fiduciary standard of care governs our investment advisory services. When acting in an investment advisory capacity, we are obligated to act in your best interest. Fiduciary responsibility is not a marketing slogan; it is a legal and ethical standard that shapes how we advise, how we manage conflicts, and how we explain our reasoning within that advisory relationship.
Fee-Based, Conflict-Aware Advice
We are engaged and paid for advice, not for transactions. We do not offer or recommend proprietary securities products, and we are not obligated to any fund family. We seek to remove avoidable conflicts from the relationship so that what we recommend reflects your situation, not a compensation arrangement.
Direct Access to Your Advisor
You work directly with the advisor who knows your situation — no call centers, no gatekeepers, no rotating point of contact. When you have a question, you reach the person involved in the decisions affecting your relationship. Access and accountability sit with the same advisor.
Coordinated With Your Other Professionals
We work to coordinate investment and wealth strategy considerations across your planning team. We work with your existing estate attorney and CPA — we do not replace them, and we do not provide legal or tax advice. The aim is a relationship where the advice you receive accounts for the rest of your professional team.
Ongoing, Not Transactional
An advisory relationship is built to continue. We review your situation as it changes, communicate the reasoning behind recommendations, and stay engaged well past any single decision. The relationship is designed to provide advice over time rather than at a single point of sale.
Institutional Experience, Personally Delivered
The relationship is informed by experience advising pension funds, endowments, and complex private wealth, brought to each client one situation at a time. We work to bring that depth of perspective to your circumstances, delivered through a single, accountable advisory relationship rather than a standardized service tier.
Tierney Wealth does not provide legal or tax advice; please consult your own legal and tax advisors regarding your situation.
Securities and investment advisory services are offered through MML Investors Services, LLC (MMLIS), a registered broker-dealer and investment adviser.
How It Fits Together
How Investment Advisory Fits With Your Plan and Your Portfolio
Investment advisory is the relationship and the standard of care; the plan and the portfolio are the work done within it. These are three distinct parts of one engagement, and keeping them distinct is how we keep each one clear.
The Advisory Relationship
This page. Investment advisory is who is accountable to you and how — the fiduciary standard of care scoped to investment advisory services, the way we are engaged and paid for advice, direct access to your advisor, and the handling of conflicts. It is the umbrella under which planning and portfolio work happen.
Wealth Strategy — The Plan
Wealth strategy is the coordinated plan that brings your assets, income, liabilities, and goals together as one system. Where investment advisory is the standard of care, wealth strategy is the direction. See our wealth strategy work for how the plan is built and maintained.
Asset Management — The Portfolio
Asset management is the construction and ongoing oversight of the investment portfolio within that plan. Where investment advisory is the standard of care, asset management is the portfolio designed to support your goals. See our asset management work for how portfolios are built and overseen.
The Standard of Care
What a Fiduciary Standard of Care Means in Practice
A standard of care matters most in how it shows up day to day. Within our investment advisory relationships, it shapes three things.
Acting in Your Best Interest
When acting in an investment advisory capacity, we are obligated to act in your best interest within the scope of the engagement. That obligation is the reason recommendations are made for your situation rather than for a product or a transaction, and it governs the advice itself.
Handling Conflicts Through Disclosure
Conflicts of interest are addressed through disclosure and a best-interest standard within the advisory relationship. We do not offer or recommend proprietary securities products and are not obligated to any fund family, which is designed to reduce avoidable conflicts in the advice you receive.
Transparency and Accountability
We work to make the reasoning behind a recommendation visible, and we keep access and accountability with the same advisor. You retain a direct line to the person involved in the decisions affecting your relationship, so accountability is not diffused across a service tier.
